Automotive vehicles are typically equipped with a grille structure that serves both a functional and aesthetic purpose. The functional purpose is to provide air flow to the radiator when the vehicle is in operation. Such air flow to the radiator allows the radiator to perform the function of cooling the vehicle engine. The aesthetic purpose is to achieve the consumer desire to drive an attractive vehicle. The grille is often considered the visual centerpiece of the vehicle and, therefore, is given much attention and design consideration. This attention, while producing an aesthetically pleasing grille, necessarily adds cost to the grill structure. The cost of the grill structure typically exceeds the cost of adjacent body panels, such as the forward bumper. The bumper is typically manufactured from a low cost polymer, for example, while the grille is often manufactured from a more expensive material and requires an expensive painting or chroming process.
The grill structure is typically assembled to the forward bumper in rigid fashion. The grill can also be manufactured along with the bumper as a unitary structure. Either way, conventional grills are not adapted to move independently of the bumper. These assemblies are disadvantageous in the case of low speed front end collisions. More specifically, in a low speed collision the bumper is adapted to displace or flex and return to an initial position with minimal damage to the bumper structure. This is possible because flexible polymeric materials are used to fabricate the bumper. Such a low speed collision however, will damage the grill structure because of the rigid attachment of the grill structure to the bumper. The grill is typically fabricated from a rigid or brittle material and is not as resilient as the bumper. Where the bumper resiliently flexes and returns to a pre-displacement position upon impact, therefore, the grill will crack or break due to the brittle nature of the material used. It is therefore possible to have a low speed collision where the bumper is undamaged, but the grill is destroyed and must be replaced. The aforementioned cost of the grill makes such a scenario an expensive one.
It is therefore desirable to provide a radiator grille assembly in which the grille conforms closely with adjoining bumper and panels of the motor vehicle, while permitting relative movement between the grille and bumper in the event of low impact collisions.